Drought battle

Kenyan farmers have started feeding their own meals to their livestock to save them from a drought which has affected as much as half the country.Image captionIn one of the worst affected areas, Marsabit in the north of the country, animal carcasses are littering countryside that used to be pastures.Image caption"If you get tea or porridge, you share with your livestock or else they will die. What are we to do now? We will die together," one herder told the BBCImage captionCows that used to sell for $500 (£400) each now sell for $100 because they are so thin.Image captionThe government promised to buy the animals to mitigate the losses but herders told the BBC they have not received such an offer.Image captionAs water dries up, the few watering holes left in Marsabit are getting busy.Image captionPeople are walking as long as 10km (6.2 miles) each way to get water.Image captionKenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has declared the drought a national emergency and has appealed for international aid.Image captionKenya's Red Cross says 2.7 million people face starvation if more help is not provided.Image caption"If it doesn't rain, this will be a catastrophe. We might lose lives, not animal lives this time, but humans," the head of the county's drought management authority, Guyo Gulicha, said.